Page 11 of Snagged By Hook

“June? What else did Daddy say?”

But June’s attention was already diverted to the front window.

Once her daughter was focused on something else, it was almost impossible to pull her attention back until she wanted to give it.

June abandoned her dinner and went to the window. She pulled back the curtain and gasped. “Our car is going for a ride. I wanna go.” With that strange pronouncement, June bolted out the front door before Nova could even process what was happening. Her brain was stuck on Brent and what he’d said to her daughter.

Nova could hear it now—sounds coming from in front of the house. It started to click, June’s words coupled with those sounds.

“Shit,” she cursed as she stood from her crossed-leg position on the blanket they spread on the floor for their picnic.

Nova was prepared to beg, borrow, or steal to save her piece of shit van. It may be on its last leg, and she would never pay off that stupid title loan Brent took out, but without it, she didn’t have a job. Without a job, she couldn’t provide for her little girl and get her the hell out of that rental and somewhere Brent would never know about.

So, anything beyond beg, borrow, and steal was now on the table too. She wasn’t proud of what she’d be willing to do for her child, but she was resigned to it.

When the eviction notices came, she wasn’t to that point yet. When the power got cut off, she still wasn’t at that place of desperation. And when she’d gotten a job, she foolishly thought she’d never have to go there, but goddammit, the car was the line. She had to have it, so if that meant giving a hand job to some beer-bellied sweaty mechanic, well…

“For June. For June. For June,” she repeated under her breath as she headed toward the front door. She gagged at the very thought, but she wouldn’t let the courts come and get her daughter or, even worse, find Brent and give him custody.

Hell no.

June was in school on the weekdays, which meant she was safe and fed. Nova just had to worry about the weekends. Those were getting better now that she had a job, and things were looking up.

The neighbors, Carl and Linda Griffith, watched June while Nova worked. They always made sure June had a warm bath and hot food. Nova just needed to hold on a little longer, and things would pick up. It was imperative that she have transportation to keep her job.

Resigned, she stepped onto the porch and froze at the sight before her. The tow truck driver was squatting down with his back to her, and her daughter stood in front of him, talking animatedly. Nova just took in the sight. Her daughter had retreated inside herself the last few months Brent was there. In the months since he’d been gone, she was slowly coming back out of her shell. Her little heart seemed to have lost all trust in the male of the species. Who could blame her?

Been there, done that, got the shitty T-shirt and emotional baggage to prove it.

She heard the man’s deep, rich laugh, and June dropped her gaze to her feet and twisted the way little girls did when they were enamored with someone. Shit, her daughter was almost her old self, and Nova was loath to interrupt it.

The man stood as June rushed into the overgrown grass to pluck a dandelion. It made her heart ache even more when she cupped her little hand around it, protecting it from any wind on her painstakingly slow walk back to the man, who crouched again at June’s approach.

June thought dandelions were magical.

They were all wishes waiting to be had, just scattered on the lawn. Nova laughed and placed her hand on her stomach. It was fluttering for her daughter. And for a moment, possibly the worst moment because her car was getting fucking towed, her daughter was just being a normal kid.

The same normal kid she’d raised her to be. The kid who still believed in magic.

Slowly, Nova stepped down to the first step, then the second. Approaching slowly, allowing her daughter to extend that normalcy as long as possible. She got as close as she dared without disrupting the moment, but wanting to be a part of it. Who knew how many more they’d have, especially with her job and their salvation slipping away.

“What’s this, sweetheart?” the man asked in a raspy voice. It seemed somehow familiar, but not at the same time.

“It’s magic.” June extended the weed to him. “Make a wish. Then blow. If you get all the flower feathers in the wind, it’ll come true.”

“Why give it to me? You keep it and make a wish.” The man didn’t take it and didn’t make a move to touch her daughter in any way, which relieved her mother’s heart. He was a stranger, after all.

“No. You look like you need a wish. Besides.” She dropped her voice conspiratorially. “If someone gives you one, it makes the magic stronger than if you pick it yourself.”

“Okay then, sweetheart. But under one condition. I’ll take this wish, but you have to make one too. And I don’t know if you know this about me, but I am a professional dandelion hunter. I’ll pick you one so perfect, the magic will be off the charts. Deal?”

“Deal,” her daughter agreed gleefully and extended the dandelion again. The man must’ve taken it, she couldn’t see from her angle, but her daughter clasped her empty hands in front of her, hopeful.

The man was still a few seconds from making his wish, no doubt, then blew the dandelion. Nova had to assume that’s what he did because her gaze was riveted on her daughter. She clapped her little hands in pure joy as flower feathers flew by her face.

Pure, unadulterated joy.

Nova wanted to weep.

---